Nova gurgled the blood in his mouth, spat it out, and bared his teeth at Violet. How he had allowed her to live on so long without punishment, he had no clue.
The power of his Divine Right, Mastery, flooded around the surrounding atmosphere. He could feel it, each and every particle fluttering through the air. Each minute atom under his perfect control. With but a thought, he sent a wall of Infinity crashing into Violet, smashing her away. Simultaneously, He forced Infinity into the gaps of his body, like stone filling a statue’s cracks.
That was the perks of the first and last Divine Right of this generation: Nova had control over Infinity fit for a god. While the average mortal or Unbounded, even at God-Graced, had to grasp at Infinity like hands slipping through water, Nova could control every wave and tide with pinpoint accuracy.
It amused him, at lighter times, to think of himself as a child playing with building blocks. Only he was playing with the building blocks of reality. Of good and evil.
He flew up, commanding the Infinity to allow him to take flight. He watched, with a frown, as Violet blasted away, droplets of Ichor trailing her path through the air.
One pulse of his Mark, and the might of the Chaos god rushed through him.
Nova teleported to where her course through the air led, like predicting the fall of an arrow. He grasped her by the nape mid-air, brought his arm up with grim violence, and shoved her down to the earth.
While he would have liked to see his daughter splatter hundreds of feet below, Nova wasn’t surprised when she imploded in her own magenta aura.
In an abrupt kick to his head, Nova spluttered, droplets and Ichor trailing a dislodged tooth as it coursed through the air. He roared, locked his sights on where Violet had reappeared, and slashed outwards. Both claws crossed over each other.
The pair of them fell into a tousle, falling through the air. Constantly teleporting in blasts of purple, only to reappear yet again. It was a dog fight. Neither side managed to land any real killer blows, but cuts and bruises discoloured the pale skin of both Unbounded forms.
The ground was fast approaching. Nova concentrated as much Infinity as he could in his right arm, his bones rattling inside. He could feel the remnants of Enos' presence clinging onto him. He centralised that power, the Infinity included, and punched down.
He hit the air above violet, releasing every speck of withheld power.
The sound of a bomb going off reverberated around the scene. Incinerating, fiery light blasted out, the radius alone seeming to cover the surrounding mile. The birds above suddenly stopped chirping, any remaining greenery, or small animals, were pulverised, and the ground visibly shook.
Nova dropped to the bottom of his crater in a crouch. Steam rose off the ground, and, noting how strangely silent the scene was, Nova turned a full circle. Nova could have transported his manor here, and fit the scattered remains of his clansmen inside with room to spare.
Pity what had happened to them after the news broke out. Once the newspapers had heard that the rest of the clan were dopplegangers, they’d disbanded. Obviously, it hadn’t been anything nearly as formal as that — just a dozen Unbounded running for their lives. They were hunted out in the droves.
Nova wiped the steam off his shoulder, forming a visible shield of Infinity around him. It was like glass, shimmering in the light if looked at from a certain angle. One of Violet’s attacks might get through, but she would be dramatically slowed down.
Armour spawned on his body, the atoms of Infinity concentrating to form the most defensive form Nova could imagine. A mountain could fall on him and Nova would shrug it off. The heavy armour was a dark black, fit with multiple weapons swirling around him. He suspected that the Infinity condensing upon his flesh was equal to that of the Silver Throne. He was a walking goldmine, a living proclamation to the world that the Unbounded had a greater hold on Infinity than the gods, or their pets of humanity, could ever hope to achieve.
Nova focused on his breathing. He needed to anchor himself in the present moment, not the internal war taking place inside of him.
Enos. Abandoning him. Putting Nova on the chopping board. Leaving him as a lamb to the slaughter.
The fact wouldn’t compute.
What was the point of his existence, if he failed the one that had imparted him with so much power in the first place? As Nova’s temperature seemed to boil, the particles of Infinity around vibrated with growing intensity.
If he was going to die, he would serve the Unbounded cause until his last breath. And if that meant dragging as many mortals as he could to the afterlife, then so be it.
He would burn the entirety of the Ravaged Lands to the ground; he could think of no better fit for his funeral pyre.
Nova frowned as the time seemed to drag on. Each second in a fight was the equivalent of minutes. What was his daughter plotting? Inside of such an ludicrously strong suit of armour, and his supercharged shielding, he couldn't be safer. Still, Nova heeded caution.
The other God-Graced seemed to be leaving Violet to deal with Nova by herself. Why they would allow such a foolish choice to take place, he had no idea. Well, at least he had time to gather his bearings.
Nova blinked, and a dozen Violets appeared before him. Perfect copies of his daughter, all encircling him.
They surrounded the Infinity encasing Nova, eyes as lifeless as dolls. Nova funnelled power into his dome, observing the group as they bombarded the shield with a barrage of punches.Violet and whatever these clones were seemed to be teleporting every split second, smashing the Infinity shield at every angle, every second, every moment.
Cracks in his shielding appeared, but Nova kept refilling them with wisps of Infinity, like cement into holes. He wondered, who would exhaust first? It would be a pathetic way to win a fight, letting his daughter exhaust herself, but it would be a painful death for her.
Nova smiled. Why bother for honour at this point anyway? He had already been left in the dust by the only person whose respect mattered. It had been a clever tactic to make so many Projections of herself, but it was also stupid to wear her power so thin. A few more minutes of this, and if no God-Graced intervened-
One of the Violets exploded. They launched into the protective layer, letting the Infinity that comprised them erupt. The layer snapped. Nova flinched, a disgusting show of weakness, and swiftly strained himself to patch the area up.
She can’t sacrifice all her Infinity like that. Plus, one of these girls must be her. It’s too risky to have too many explosions so close.
When the rest of the duplicates proceeded to do the same exact thing, all in perfect synchronicity, Nova thought the universe must be having a joke.
His shielding was jeopardised at every angle, and it would be a waste of Infinity to restore it. Instead, Nova concentrated the divine essence into his armour. Before he could teleport away, the ground at his feet burst upwards, like a mole reaching out of its tunnelling. Violet — the real version now — slashed out with claws trembling with Infinity.
She was fully clad in her own amour, and Nova may have been a proud father in some deranged kind of way, the ability to craft protection notoriously difficult, if not for the fact she had just stabbed him in the sternum.
He warped out of the way that instance, but it was too slow; Violet was dragged with him.
They were falling through the air again, Violet connected to Nova still through her embedded claws. They dug deeper with each passing second, and Nova coughed out blood.
Nova teleported five more times in rapid succession. Yet her grasp on him wouldn’t relent. Nova fought the urge to scream out in frustration. Instead, breathing in as deeply as he could through torn lungs, he concentrated on the Infinity scattered all around. His Divine Right resonated with him deeper than ever, its symbol glowing a pasty white on his forehead.
All around, the Infinity suffusing the air began to curve and ebb, circling the both of them as the centre of a storm. Nova felt through his connection to Infinity every Unbounded lurking in a few miles range. He locked in on them, forcing their shallow forms to disperse back into divine essence. Fuel to the fire.
The hailstorm took on a visible appearance, a sandy white powder where the Infinity grew truly concentrated. He commanded each to become spiked, like a rainstorm, each droplet moulded with the shape and force of a dagger.
It was hard for even him to sustain such intricate mastery over Infinity. Dozens of the drop-sized blades were bound to land on his armour, perhaps even his skin, too. But it was a price Nova was willing to pay.
Trapped in the eye of the storm, there would be nowhere for his daughter to escape. Nova couldn’t tell how high up either of them were anymore, trapped amidst the clouded scene. They were sent whipping through the air, neither of them risking another blast of purple in fear of reappearing in a bundle of sharp ends.
Nova could teleport out of range of the storm, and fortunately for him, Violet wouldn’t be able to place a safe bet on how far that would be. She would either undershoot, and materialise with ten stab wounds, or overshoot, and end up hundreds of miles away from the battlefront, requiring days to recover from the tiresome expense of travel. It was Nova’s crucial advantage, leveraged by his extended awareness of Infinity.
But neither seemed intent on leaving until the other was dead.
Around the pair of them, becoming accustomed to the storm now, Nova crafted a dozen weapons. Halberds, spears, longswords, and anything that looked like it could impale. Violet ignored them all, still swiping away at him with her free hand, and trying to shred his intestines with the other. With the pandemonium going on all around, it was almost unsuccessful enough for Nova to ignore outright. He had sent spots of Infinity to block his pain receptors, knowing the agony would be too distracting to deal with.
“You made a good attempt.” For some reason, Nova felt melancholic when face-to-face with the death of his daughter. Perhaps using that term to describe her made him too sentimental. No . . . he realised. This was more akin to watching a failed experiment burn before your eyes. “You could have been one of our strongest fighters, you know?” Nova stuffed Infinity to fill the gaps in his internals, just enough so that his words didn’t sound gargled. Blood leaked out of his mouth as he spoke, regardless. “You were the first clone we made, and look at you now!”
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
Violet twisted the claw in his chest. Nova winced. “You had the potential to surpass even me in power. Such anger in your eyes! Imagine what you could do if you leveraged that against the real villains-”
Violet’s fist pressed through his entire torso, pulling through to the other side in a splash of gore. Nova laid resting on her arm, held up by the hole in his stomach.
There was no time to dilly-dally any longer. Nova removed the Infinity blockers on his pain receptors, letting the hurt and anguish wash over his body. He had always found pain to be the perfect motivator. He let it foster into rage, into the urge to annihilate everyone and everything.
He would start by exterminating this worm of a child.
With but a thought, an electrical signal of his neurons, the hovering weapons he had summoned swung into his daughter.
Violet didn’t last a second.
He doubted she even had a second to think, a second to resist, before the blades dug into her. Spikes pressed through her flesh, a sword fully cleaved into her abdomen, and the hailstorm all around seemed to turn its full attention on her. Lashing away at her body like she was a helpless ragdoll, her insides were turned into outsides.
Nova made to escape her claws, expecting her arm to be limp. Instead, its hold on Nova, strangely, wouldn’t relent. Nova took another look at her, having seen people die in much less severe conditions. Instead, Violet leered into his eyes, the kind of venomous hatred he had identified earlier bubbling fully to the surface, and overflowing.
When her entire body began glowing white, Nova only needed a split second to realise what was happening. But it wasn’t enough to teleport away.
Violet’s body exploded. Only this hadn’t been Violet at all — just another lousy Projection. A remarkably strong one.
Her arm still embedded into his body, the pair of them trapped in a storm of dancing edges, Nova felt his insides char, erupting from the inside out.
----------------------------------------
Violet hadn’t expected that to work so well.
She watched, at Maris’ side, as Nova’s body was sent hurtling towards the ground. His storm of twirling Infinity was a foggy mass, hundreds of feet above the crater he had punched into the earth, minutes ago. Violet tried to control her breathing: never in her life had she been forced to pick up on so many details in such a short time span. The speed Nova fought at was unparalleled.
“Impressive.” Maris allowed, watching up at the fight from their vantage point. They were hidden from view, a team of illusionist clansmen from various sects protecting them.
Violet didn’t say a word. This next part demanded every speck of her attention.
She had only done this once before, and only for a brief second. Disrupting Nova’s connection with his Chaotic power was already a challenge, but in her current state, Violet wasn’t too confident in her abilities.
All of those Projections had drained her of much Infinity. It was effective cannon fodder, true, but what of the cost? There was a reason why Unbounded didn’t just send swarms of exploding Projections to deal with their enemies — not normally, anyway. It was awfully draining, no doubt, but the Infinity cost was nothing to scoff at. Violet would be permanently weaker until she found another store of Infinity to feast upon.
The only reason she had been willing to pull such a drastic tactic in the first place, was because defeating Nova would grant her a God-Graced’s worth of Infinity. Some of that power would be lost in the transfer, obviously, but Violet had a real shot at skipping straight to Warlord Rank. The prospect was daunting, but beyond exciting — at that level, she would be able to train her Infinity to such mastery that flight would be a natural next step. It was arguably the hardest pure-Infinity technique one could hope to cultivate, without the ridiculous advantage Nova had with his Divine Right.
And Nova was severely weakened. Enos had definitely done a number on him, and though he had managed to recover, Violet was proud to say she hadn’t slacked on her end. Nova really was on his last legs.
But he would know that better than anyone. All Violet had to do now was stop him from escaping. Easier said than done.
She watched intently as he spun through the air, feeling his connection to the greater subject of Chaos. To what had once been Teivel’s power, but now was sourced from Enos. She had to ruin that link, to leave the God-Graced to his own devices.
Nova sent a pulse of energy billowing from his Mark, but Violet honed in on it. She sent it dissipating through the air before it could form into a rift to escape.
When nothing happened, and Nova was still falling, Violet’s heart sang. Yes!
Her brow was covered with sweat, but she had to keep going.
Again, Nova tried to form a getaway. And again, Violet denied him it. There would be no easy exit.
He was close to the ground now. Violet had memories of Joshua flooding through her mind, but didn’t let it shake her. Surely Nova would accept his fate any second now. There was a chance he’d be able to survive the impact, but being in fighting shape after such a collision would be an impossibility.
Again, with ceaseless effort, Violet brought both arms into the air. He screamed so loud, each word was a sonic wave of noise, blasting over the scene. The grass at Violet’s feet was blown backwards, as were several strands of her hair.
It wasn’t enough to ruin her focus, and with gritted teeth, again, Nova’s attempts bore no fruit. Power dissipated into the surroundings, forming into nothing. Wasted energy swallowed back up by the world.
Violet could hardly believe her eyes. This was actually working.
Nova was ten feet from splattering against the earth. She could blink, and he’d be dead.
However, when Violet did open her eyes, the sight she was met with was far more befuddling.
Nova seemed to halt mid-air, inches away from the ground. Every muscle in his body was strained, his Divine Right glowing on his forehead like a star rising out of a dark abyss. His right fist shook, and even as blood made a pool below him, he held himself. His fist was held tightly, and encasing his body like an invisible giant, was an exact replica, only a hundred times bigger, and weaved from Infinity. Nova had literally caught himself mid-air through some ludicrous twist of divine essence.
Violet cursed. She had been hoping that he’d be too exhausted to rely on pure Infinity manipulation, but clearly, that wasn’t the case.
Violet made to run forwards, past the boundary disguising them, but Maris held out a hand. “Think logically, and be careful. The other God-Graced are still preoccupied, but if I think he’s too much for you, I’ll pull you out of there and finish him myself.”
“Okay.” Violet wanted to say more, but held her tongue. Being interrupted for even a second could be the difference between Nova getting away, and her finally getting revenge.
In one blast of purple light, Violet appeared before Nova.
They locked eyes for one second. Violet didn’t know what to make of the glassy stare he gave her. Whether it was completely absent of emotion, his mind made hollow by Enos' ravagement, or bursting with suppressed feelings, Violet couldn’t tell.
Without another word, the two slammed into each other.
At the beginning, the pair attempted to use their Marks for complex attacks, or to weave Infinity in advantageous ways. Soon though, the exhaustion of their tribulations saw that power wearing thin. This was a classic hand-to-hand brawl. Nothing special or ostentatious about it.
Violet weaved and punched like a boxer, trying to enter a flow state. She couldn’t overthink this fight, stripped down to the most basic fundamentals of combat. The kind she had drilled into Remus when they had left First Rite so long ago. That memory made her wince.
She swept her foot under Nova, and her father tumbled over. She punched down, right as he rolled out of the way, and launched back to his feet. With a manic look, breath out of control and appearing more feral than ever, he opened his mouth.
“I see now that I was wrong.”
Violet anticipated Nova’s next blow. He dived into her, weighing enough to crush her entire body if he so wished. Violet abused that weight to send him flying in the opposite direction.
It only took him a moment to regain his footing. “I was a fool to think you could belong with us Unbounded. I see now the error of my ways: trying to combine humanity with Unbounded is like trying to make a rock bleed. It’s like thinking good is the same as evil.”
A flurry of blows so fast, Violet could hardly process what happened, took place. Thank the gods for her lightning quick instincts.
“But now look at you.” Nova seemed to be gaining more confidence as he spoke, even though his panting breath. “Not fit to belong with Unbounded, not fit to belong with humanity. You don’t belong anywhere on this earth. In this universe, for that matter.”
Nova moved shockingly fast. He grabbed Violet by the neck, slamming her into the earth like she weighed no more than a sack of potatoes.
“So what’s left for you now? Whatever side you join, half of your flesh will rebel against you. Whatever tree you plant will prove fruitless. The soil’s spoiled.”
Violet couldn’t move. She struggled, but Nova kept holding her down, as if a mountain was upon her. His words hit her, their intentions invading into her deepest insecurities. For some reason, despite her declining ability to breathe, the only thing she could think of was that original Violet. The human girl who would have led a normal life, if not for the Unbounded interception of her reality. Violet didn’t identify with that human origin, but neither did she with the Unbounded side. She had no memory of it. But the only memories she did have seemed borrowed: was she Violet? Was she Unbounded? Was she both, or neither, or something else entirely? Was that fusion of Unbounded and mortal the birth of a new person?
Violet managed to wack at Nova enough to get him to relent his hold. It was only for a second, but that was all she needed.
She kicked him in the chest, and half-tumbling, rolled ten feet away. There, she stood still, catching her breath, and staring down her father as he did much the same.
“What do you have to fight for?” Nova asked. The question felt to Violet like a slap to the face. “I have spite to cling onto, but you? I wonder . . . what is it that keeps you fighting in a world that has no place for you?”
His words were like poison. Violet had to stop listening, else he might actually convince her of something moronic.
I have something to fight for, right?
It was too late. He had already invaded her psyche, these questions like parasites worming through her mind.
What did she want? She had been so intent on getting revenge, that everything after that seemed cloudy. For a second of hopelessness, Violet looked up at Nova. When she saw him, dishevelled, draped in so much blood it had dried to form a crusty layer, and with that wild look in his eyes, something seemed to hit her. Of course she had something to fight for: stopping evil beings like this from inflicting harm on the world.
The gods may have done wrong, and so may have humanity. But hitting each other with sticks and throwing rocks like cavemen wasn’t the answer. You didn’t end violence with more violence. Not on such a grand scale anyway. Murder and justice were two very different things.
Violet stood up a little taller. “I’m Unbounded. I’m human. I’m both at once and none of those things at the same time. I’m a walking, talking paradox, perhaps the world’s greatest contradiction. But that is enough. As crazed as my existence is, I’ll never degrade myself to senseless destruction.”
In a second wind, Violet reactivated her Mark. She cut through space, violet light spilling over the scene for miles all around, like a heavenly beacon.
She reappeared with her claws in Nova’s neck. Violet thought he tried to speak around the protrusions, but you can only abuse vocal cords so much before they lose their use.
Life finally seemed to slip out of Nova’s gaze. Violet allowed a sigh of relief.
She paused, taking the moment in. Using her internal senses, she could feel the team God-Graced approaching. But there was another kind of power she couldn’t quite put her finger on . . . one that was right behind her. Violet turned on her feet, to what should have been Nova’s rotting carcass.
Something seemed to stop the God-Graced’s advance, wherever they were. When white light began to seep out of Nova’s eyes, Violet wasn’t so confident they would arrive in time.